Wish You were Here
by AmericaSweetSouthernBelle
Summary: What if, against popular wishes on fanfiction, what if Arthur never stayed around after LAX? What if he disappeared like the rest? What if Ariadne tries to get over him?
1. Wish You Were Here

_Hi guys, I know... Another one-shot... But I got inspired by Hey Monday. And Well. I lied. I'm thinking I may add one more chapter... But I don't know. I kind of wanted this one to be more somber with a sad ending... Even though that's not my style at all. I hope you enjoy it. _

_**I don't own Inception or Wish You Were Here by Hey Monday. I wish I did. I wish I could sing. Just sayin'.**_

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"Wish you were here, Wish you well. If you'd only share this hell! But you leave and stains are left on me. I wish you, I wish you were here." – Hey Monday

Her hand hesitated on the page. She could feel the tears rimming her eyes as she tore them from the words scribbled between the white lines. The words were shaky and she wasn't completely sure of herself. In all this time, she had expected that maybe her heart would change. Maybe, maybe he'd show up and be her prince and save her from herself and the hell she was currently surrounded in. All she wanted was a friend and a lover. She started to see he would never be any of those a few months ago.

She swore to herself she would never forget the feeling of the chaste brush of lips. She swore she couldn't, she just couldn't walk away from something that felt so incomplete. She never walked away from a half-finished project. Especially when it came to a man like _him. _She didn't want to forget something like this. She felt like her fingers were hanging onto the edge of a ragged cliff and if she were to let go, she would plummet and would never be able to see the light of day. She would be lost in a self-loathing darkness. Limbo would never be able to touch the loneliness.

_How the hell could a guy steal my heart so quickly? Am I really that easy?_ She chastised herself.

They had left her life. Going their separate routes from LAX and never crossing since. _Six months. Six painful months. _She thought to herself bitterly. She scribbled words on a piece of paper to help her overcome these feelings.

She really did miss him. Then, she hated that knowing smirk she received every time she accomplished something, or the look in his eyes that resembled pity when he knew something was wrong with her and he thought he could possibly relate from previous experiences. She never wanted that look. Then she never wanted that reassurance; she was no damsel in distress.

But now, she was fighting with herself to keep her head above water. She was trying her hardest to maintain any type of security. Now, she just wanted the touch of his skin. She wanted his rain and musky scent to surround her and enclose her in some type of warmth.

But she fought with herself. She just didn't want to miss him. She didn't want to remember him. She didn't want any of this because he left her life just as fast as he had entered.

But now she missed the feel of his touch on her forearm when she awoke from a dream. She now missed those eyes. A reassurance she no longer held. A reassurance promising her she was truly in reality. Was she ok? Was she really ok? She had yet to figure it out.

_Is this reality? Could he simply walk away that easily? Was that kiss simply a decoy as he acted like it may be? _She stood up swiftly from her seat and began to pace. God how she wished she had answers. Anything.

She would be ok with absolutely anything to take her out of her misery. She sat back down and slumped against the back of her chair. She stared at the paper. She marked through the words with a simple line. She didn't know what to say to him.

She wanted to tell him she was madly in love with him. Or at least the idea of him. That she was willing to take a leap if he would meet her half way. Hell, she would be ok with A fourth as of now.

But she knew he'd never get this letter. So she decided to simply quote a song. It read as this:

"_Dear Arthur,_

_I love you. _

_I want to hate you._

_I want to understand you._

_Please? Anything. I… I just miss you. Ugh._

_Here's my heart in a postcard, darlin', Just one step from the edge. But it's too late to call. Are you out there? Sick and tired of pretending, darlin' that you'll ever come back. Tell me something… Talk me down again. I'm broken. I'm frozen out._

_I wish you were here. I wish you well. If you'd only shared this hell, but you leave and the stains are left on me… **I wish you were here. **_

_Sincerely,_

_Ariadne." _

She folded the paper and slid it into an envelope.

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The next day she made her way up to Professor Miles. It was a lucid and spontaneous hope. She hadn't actually expected to do this. Or maybe, somewhere in her subconscious she did.

"Ariadne? How are you?" he asked. The question was double sided. She sat down in the desk in front of him.

"What's the chance you could deliver a letter?" She asked.

"Well, that depends. Who is this letter to?"

"Arthur."

"The Point Man?" He kept his voice low. She nodded her head. He sat there for a long moment. "Could you… Give me a moment?" he asked. She nodded her head as he disappeared through the back door of the auditorium. She heard the muffled sound of his voice before he reappeared.

"He's currently at the warehouse. The lease is about to go up and he's making sure nothing was left behind." Miles informed her. She nodded her head and stood up without a word.

"Thank you." She mumbled as she made her way up the stairs. She felt her heart enter her throat. But oddly she felt numb. She felt broken and hurt.

She walked up to the familiar gray doors and pulled them open. Arthur's head snapped up at her and his eyes focused.

"Ariadne?" He sounded slightly breathless and surprised. Something he rarely allowed to be shown. "How are you?" he asked cautiously.

She walked up to him with tears in her eyes. She pulled the letter out of her messenger bag and handed it to him.

"_People dream for is some type of catharsis from their past." _ She loosely remembered Cobb's telling her once. She felt that maybe, maybe this would give her the cleansing she needed to finally break her habit.

Before Arthur could stop her she turned around on her heel and left him standing in the empty warehouse.

She hoped that he felt half as empty as she currently did.

In hindsight, she realized the letter did absolutely nothing for her. Only a pair of arms and a smile from a man she knew she could love could be the fix.

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**Thanks for Reading!**


	2. 6 Months

_So... Another Hey Monday song for this chapter. Thanks to **siriusly cool48 **For convincing me to add one more chapter. I've been kind of mulling over this for the last few days anyways... But I didn't know if I should post it. But it was pointed out that the first would suck because I kind of left you guys hanging there. Didn't mean to leave you hanging in the air! Forgive me! _

_And I'm not going to plug, but I do have a story called Safety In the Darkness... And If you guys like me... I mean... Why not right? (Ok, shameless plug. I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Because I know I hate those... Sooo.)_

_**I don't own Inception or 6 Months by Hey Monday. Just sayin'.**_

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"And I can't think of anybody else who I hate to miss As much as I hate missing you." – Hey Monday

Arthur sat on a law chair in the empty warehouse. His fingers flipped the envelope around and around like how Cobb's totem spun. A red dice laid in front of feet with six white dots facing up at him.

He never expected this to happen.

He had expected for Ariadne to come home, and never think about that chaste kiss again. He had expected her to come home and move on and do what she did before they had stole her innocence of the dream had expected, even though he should have known better, that maybe Ariadne would come back and forget him.

Forget the dreams, the PASIV, and most of all, the kiss.

But if he was being honest with his self, which he usually was, he didn't want her to forget any of that. He wanted her to remember it, and wanted her for himself.

He missed the way she bit the corner of her bottom lip when she was trying to figure a problem out. He missed the way she her eyes would burn into his soul when she didn't get the answer she wanted. He missed the way she smiled at him when he said something funny. He missed the sound of her laugh or the way she would stand in front of the window when she woke up from a dream, like the sun was her ultimate totem.

He missed the way she would rub her neck and pitch the bridge of her nose when she was aggravated, like any of that would help her. He missed her voice when she was humming along with whatever song was playing on her iPod. In all honesty, he just missed her. And he missed her a lot.

He never thought that he would fall for someone. He was always the strictly professional. He was the stoic, strategic, precise person on the team. He was the one that would keep everyone in line, and actually get the work done.

He wasn't the flirt, he wasn't the comedian, he wasn't the completely fucked up barely-holding-onto-reality person either. He was the background music to all of them. He was the conductor to the symphony. He was the one that kept everything together, and did all the research. He was the backbone and skin to the body. He kept everything protected during the missions, and he wouldn't take Eames or Cobb's shit.

Yet, he was now completely distracted, left with only himself and his regrets of the past six months.

_I should have stayed… I should have ran after her at LAX._ He thought to himself. "I should have stopped her from walking out those fucking doors." He finished his thought aloud. He dropped the letter on the floor and rubbed the back of his neck before burying his face in his hands.

_I should have stopped her… I should have grabbed her and swore to never let go… I should have kissed her. I should have done a lot of things… _He chastised himself. _Fucking hell._ He stood up and made his way to the back of the warehouse. Distraction, that's what he needed. He looked around the empty rooms making sure nothing was left.

After procrastinating he walked back to the lawn chairs. They had been there from who ever was previously here. He picked up his dice and slid it into his suit pocket. He then picked up the envelope. He opened it for the umpteenth time. He carefully laid down the envelope that had his name drawn on it with a beautiful script that only an architect would like of. He pulled the paper out and read the words carefully, letting them burn into his memory.

"_Dear Arthur," _His eyes began to read. Lines were marked through the next few lines, but he could still easily read them. He wasn't sure what the lines meant, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

_"I love you_.

_I want to hate you._

_I want to understand you. _

_Please? Anything. I… I just miss you." _The lines ended. The words were too honesty. He tore his eyes from the paper. He took a deep breath before pulling the dice out of his pocket and tossing it onto the floor.

"_Here's my heart in a postcard, Darlin', just one step from the edge. But it's too late to call. Are you out there?" _He picked the dice up and let it tumble from his fingertips. "_Sick and tired of pretending, darling' that you'll ever come back. Tell me something… Talk me down again." _He picked the dice up and rolled it between his fingertips.

"_I'm broken."_ He never cried. He hadn't cried since he was a kid when his grandfather died suddenly in the night. But he felt the tell-tell glaze come to his eyes, he tried to blink them back be instead the felt softly onto the fabric of his dark gray wool pants. "_I'm frozen out… I wish you were here. I wish you well. If you'd only share this hell, but you leave and these stains are left on me…"_ he felt every regret of the past six months tumble on him like a tsunami.

"**_I wish you were here." _**The words were heavily scribbled to stand out against the starch white paper. He heard a crack of thunder come across the skies. He folded the paper carefully and placed it back in the envelope before sliding the envelope into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He rolled the dice between his fingers.

"Give me a six, and I'll go after her." He told the cube before letting it roll from his fingertips. Instead of looking at the number he just picked it up and slid it into his pocket before going out to his car.

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He still remembered where she lived, a small little Parisian loft with a coffee shop at the end of the street. He pulled his car into a parking spot. The rain came down in sheets. He pushed his door open and pulled up the lapels of his trench coat. He walked into the complex and went up to the 7th floor. Her loft was the first door on the right. Against what he would have normally done, he didn't hesitate. He knocked on the door.

A few moments passed before he realized that the door wasn't opening. He knocked again.

"She's not home." A lean girl stood across the hall. She had dirty blond hair and the stormy eyes. "She's never came back from our last class." She informed him. Arthur gave her a curt nod before letting out a deep breath he realized he was holding.

"Thank you…" He told her bringing his gaze to her face.

"Your eyes…" She began, "Your eyes look familiar." She traced off.

"My eyes?" he asked her. It then clicked with her.

"Ariadne knows you. She's drew your face one day during a class we had together." The red head informed him. "I asked her who it was… She said it was someone from a barely remembered dream… Déjà Vu much?" she smiled at him warmly before she entered her apartment. He stood there and a new wave of regret washed through him. He had been in her dreams, from what it sounded, as much as she was in his. He walked slowly down the stairs of her complex and through the lobby. He exited the door and looked across the street to where his car was. He noticed a sea of brown waves walking up the sidewalk. The person was carrying an umbrella that shielded their face. He ran across the street and stood beside his car until he knew for certain who it was. The woman never looked up, but he could tell by her clothes that it was the woman he had dreamt of. He walked up to her with steady steps.

"Ariadne." His voice was calm and strong. The woman looked up and her eyes were plagued with a certain sadness he never wanted to see again.

"Arthur?" her voice was uncertain. He took a few steps to her until he was under her umbrella. A drop of rain rolled down the end of his nose. He didn't know what he was doing. He just let his body go into autopilot. He did what he had wanted to do for the last six months.

He brought his hands up to her face and gently cupped her cheeks. He brought his lips down and, like a feather, touched her lips to his. He barely ghosted above her lips. Making sure she wasn't going to kill him for doing this. When she didn't stop him he pressed his lips against hers. He felt both of her hands come up to the back of his neck and she pressed against his firmly. He could feel the rain pouring onto both of them but he refused to let her go.

He knew in this moment, he would never let her walk away from him again. A few moments later she pulled away with clear confusion on her face.

"I'm sorry… I should have done that six months ago." The words tumbled from his lips.

"What does this mean?" she asked him. Still unsure of herself.

"I don't want you to miss me ever again. I really hate missing you." He smiled at her.

"Evidently… You're ruining one of your favorite suits in the rain." She smiled up to him.

"You would be the one to remind me of that wouldn't you?"

"It's my job."

"And I don't care." He smiled down at her before crashing his lips to hers for another hungry kiss in the rain.

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